CHARLIE CHAN #5, 1949. Neat S&K cover, I like that the left over Nazi has a pet monkey, because monkeys always make comics fun.
JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #94, 1963. Dick Ayers inks, with a nicely arrogant looking Loki.
LAST OF THE VIKING HEROES #1, 1987. Mike Thibodeaux inks this, one of the bits of art that Jack Kirby did for Thibodeaux’s 1980s comic. I kind of find Thibodeaux’s inks a bit too slick, but it’s a nice cover.
This double sized comic from 1971 reprints seven Kirby/Ayers stories from RAWHIDE KID issues of the early 1960s, for a total of 47 pages (with a non-Rawhide solo Ayers 5-pager thrown in as well).
This much Rawhide Kid in one go kind of gets old fast, with the constant theme of just how good a gunman the Kid is, and how revered/feared an outlaw he is. But there is still some interesting variety within the genre.
“Gun Duel In Trigger Gap” (RK #19) features the Kid actually falling in love and wishing he could settle down, but of course his outlaw status gets in the way, and he acts heroically in the end to beat some bad guys and leave his potential sweetheart behind.
“Fight Or Crawl, Kid” (RK #19) has the Kid confronted by someone who thinks he can outgun him, demonstrating some impressive shooting, which of course the Kid out-does with no effort.
“The Little Man Laughs Last” (RK #29) has a great splash of the Kid jumping from his horse to a stage-coach. In this one, he demonstrates his bravery compared to some bigger men, but apparent fear of women.
“The Fallen Hero” (RK #29) is the Shane-variation, where the a young boy admires the Kid above his own father. I think anyone who’s read/watched enough westerns knows where that leads.
“The Trail Of Apache Joe” (RK #29) has the Kid given one of his periodic chances to clear his name, if he helps bring in the outlaw of the title. If you don’t guess that he manages to do the bringing in, but not the name-clearing, you really need to read more westerns…
“The Guns Of Jasker Jelko” (RK #28) the Kid goes up against a travelling carnival’s trick shooter this time, a fine enough story made memorable by the joke ending about Annie Oakley.
“When A Gunslinger Gets Mad” (RK #28) is the last story, which features the Kid walking into a bar and ordering a milk. As it almost invariably did in the old west, this led to a good old fashioned barroom brawl, as cowboys tended to take lactose intolerance to ridiculous extremes.
This 1970s reprint anthology contains the 7 page Kirby/Rule story from STRANGE TALES #96, “I Dream of Doom”. In this story, a man goes to a doctor with a story about being haunted by a giant Kirby monster in his dreams, always escaping just in time. In a stunning breach of professional ethics, the doctor says he’ll give the man something to stay awake, but slips him a sedative instead. This leaves the man to become a victim of the monster, and reveals a twist ending that calls into question the nature of reality.
Just about all the Kirby monster stories of this era look good, and this one is no exception, with some a nice looking monster, some very good storytelling in and out of the dream sequences and some very nice inking. Pleasantly, this is also one of the better written of the stories, with a fairly clever resolution and several interesting bits. I’d love to see it reprinted in a more permanent edition some day (as I put together a dream MARVEL VISIONARIES JACK KIRBY v2 in my head…).
Published 1975
A bit of an oddity, for some reason in 1981 Harvey published a single issue of SHOCKING TALES DIGEST, containing reprints of late 1950s horror/fantasy stories, primarily by Jack Kirby and Bob Powell. I don’t think they published anything else in the period like it, most of their comics at the time being the humour books like Richie Rich and Casper.
The Kirby contents are nine stories that add up to 42 pages, all of his work (except one cover) from the first two issues of ALARMING TALES in 1957. It’s interesting stuff, with great art and stories with a lot of themes that Kirby would show an interest in throughout his career, although of course dealt with in a cursory manner with no more than six pages per story.
“Logan’s Next Life” is a two page short about re-incarnation. Apparently you keep your birthmarks between incarnations.
“The Cadmus Seed” (also recently reprinted in THE JACK KIRBY READER v2) is a silly little story with some interesting use of cloning, echoing some later JIMMY OLSEN stories. I also just noticed that there’s a line in here which sounds suspiciously like one of the best lines in an Alan Moore Swamp Thing story and a scene which looks like it could have inspired the Gaiman/McKean version of Black Orchid.
“The Fourth Dimension is a Many Splattered Thing” is goofy, mostly notable for Kirby getting to draw some nice cubist/surrealist landscapes for a few pages.
“The Last Enemy” is probably the most interesting story in here from a “Kirby’s other work” perspective, since there are clear hints of Kamandi’s world. In this version, a man goes to the future in a time machine, to find a world where men have been destroyed by atom bombs and intelligent animals have taken over, all of whom would fit in perfectly in a Kamandi story.
Also interesting is that the villains of the piece are the rats, who have dug a tunnel system under the earth as part of the plan their eventual takeover, which resonates with themes in Kirby’s unfinished novel, THE HORDE.
“Donnegan’s Daffy Chair” features a flying chair, which of course evokes Metron of the New Gods and his Mobius Chair. The rest of the story doesn’t, but it’s some goofy fun, with a good sense of humour.
“Hole in the Wall” features an old newspaper employee who dreams of fanciful travel, gets fired and finally realizes his dreams. This is, I think, the best of the stories here, with some wonderfully evocative images of the times, as well as some nice fantasy images.
“The Big Hunt” goes back to merely silly, with a story about a man who goes to the fifth dimension in an experiment and hunts there. The big interest is Kiry dreaming up some wild fantasy animals.
“The Fireballs” is a UFO story, with people seeing mysterious balls of flame in the sky. I’m still not sure I understand exactly what happens in this story.
“I Want to Be a Man” giant robots, Kirby style, in a fun little story which seems to be inspired by Asimov’s short stories of this period. Great splash page of the robot, which was also used on the backcover of the digest.
Lots of other fun stuff besides, and fairly well printed given the digest size, this probably isn’t too easy to find, but worth picking up if you do. A shame Kirby’s other work for Harvey from the era (including a few more ALARMING TALES stories, several issues of BLACK CAT MYSTIC and some science fiction and war comics) hasn’t been reprinted.
Some more random covers from scattered years. Did you know that there are about 400 Jack Kirby covers for books that didn’t have Kirby interior work? Just so you don’t think there’s any danger of running out…
GREEN HORNET #9, 1942. Gorgeous early cover done for Harvey Comics, with a nice “ugly mobster” type and an interesting composition.
AVENGERS, THE #12, 1965. Great looking Chic Stone inked cover of the team. I especially like the classic Kirby pose of Giant-Man’s hand there.
CAPTAIN GLORY #1, 1993. From the “coulda been a contender” file, this illustration dates from the same time as the concept art that would evolve into the Fourth World characters, apparently at some point known as Captain Victory. The character remained unused, although his name did go on to bigger things in the 1980s. Finally, when Topps licenced some Kirby concepts in the 1990s for their shortlived “Kirbyverse” line, this great looking piece of art saw print, with some fine Ditko art inside.
